Thursday, September 18, 2008

It is another new school year, and overall I’m not entirely hating the fact that summer is now over. The students started school the day after Labor Day, and ever since, I’ve been trying to learn 150 new names. It is always strange how at the beginning of the school year, the kids all kind of look the same. Most of the girls have long, straight hair in shades varying from blonde to dark blonde to light brown with blonde highlights to light brown without highlights to slightly darker brown…well, you get the picture. And for reasons still very unclear to me, the boys are still sporting the “I-need-a-haircut” haircut.

The students are starting to be less frightened by me, and they’re showing their personalities more and more each day. Sometimes it’s through well-rehearsed eye rolling. Sometimes it’s through laughing at my really bad jokes. Who knew literature could be so funny? Or maybe they're just laughing at my story about the time I got a black eye via the screen door handle while I was trying to grab my cat who was trying to go attack a raccoon 8 time his size.

We’re going to start on a note of not-so-awesomeness because, well, because what’s the point of having a blog if you can’t vent.

Back to School ECMON-S-A

So my computer doesn’t work. As in my school computer which I need to enter attendance, enter grades, email, create assignments, print, etc. does not work. I knew this before school started because like a sucker, I came in two weeks before school started to prepare for the start of school. Computer no worky. (That is a Havig familial colloquialism meaning something does not function properly, by the way.) No worries though. I put in a work order, and it should be fixed in no time. My tech-savvy co-worker even took a look at it and did all that stuff that I don’t know how to do, and she said the outlook was bleak. five weeks later, I’m still without a computer. I called IT during the first week of school and left a message. Shortly afterword, the IT people sent out an email to the entire district telling people not to call after they have submitted a work order. I’m sure lots people had requests and were checking on the status of their work orders, but I couldn’t help but feel like the email was directed at me. I’m also pretty sure that my work order was either “lost” or moved to the bottom of the pile.

Enough complaining on my part . On to the awesomeness ! ! !

These are from the end of the year last year, so we’ll consider the Back to School Best of May and June English Class Moments of Awesomeness.

Moment 1: My honors kids were reading Joy Luck Club, and the class was discussing why the main character’s mother pushes her to succeed so much. Student 1: “She does it out of love.”Student 2: “What’s love got to do with it?”It wasn’t until a few beats later that she realized what she said. Unfortunately, she declined requests to sing the rest of the Tina Turner song.

Moment 2: Also during the Joy Luck Club unit, one student misread the title “Red Candle” on the board as “Red Candie.”Student 1: “Red Candle…candy…candle…candy. I guess candy is spelled with a ‘y’ and not ‘ie.’Student 2: “Candie with an id sounds like a hooker name.”Student 1: “All artificial sweeteners are hooker names.”Havig: “I don’t think I’ve ever met a hooker named Splenda. Have you, Student 1? Equal? Sweet & Low?”

Moment 3:More Joy Luck Club goodness. For each of the families, there is a quiz that the students take. A student had come in to make up her quiz and was about to hand it to me while I was sitting at my desk. She saw a quiz key on my desk and started checking her answers.Student 1 with growing look of horror: “Oh. Oh. OH.”Havig: “That’s the wrong key.”Student 1: “Thank goodness. I only got one right on the first side.”Student 2: “What happened?”Student 1: “I was looking at the Ha-su family on instead.” (The name is actually Hsu.)Havig: “I like how you say the Chinese names like they’re Spanish.” (Earlier, she had pronounced Jong as “Hong.”)Student 1: “Well, I don’t know Japa…” (She stopped herself realizing her mistake.)

Moment 4: I don’t remember how this conversation started, so we’ll just go with it. I should point out that Student 2 is a boy, and the others are all girls. Once again this is my Honors English II class during 4th period.

Student 1: “Nancy Drew wasn’t around in 1903.”Student 2: “Yes, it was. Nancy Drew is timeless.”Student 3: “Have you ever even read Nancy Drew?” Student 2: “No.”Student 4: “What boy would read Nancy Drew?”Havig: “It’s not like it’s a girly book. It’s not all flowers and ‘I’m so in love.’ It’s ‘I found a skull, and now I’m going to find out where it came from. That’s Nancy Drew. Well, that’s my Nancy Drew.”Student 4: “Honestly, what high school girl goes around finding skulls?”Student 5 tentatively raises her hand.

The Havig

Me in non-teacher attire

English Class Moments of Awesomeness

The idea for this blog originated a few years ago while I was sharing funny things that my students said and did in class with my friends. My students crack me up all the time, and I enjoy sharing their hilarity with others. Originally, I posted ECMOA on my MySpace page, but the audience was limited. In an effort to expand and try out some different technology, I decided to start an official ECMOA blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Currently, I'm ...

watching the 5th season of The Office. Amazing!

watching the first season of Parks and Rec. Also amazing!

STILL boycotting the 7th Harry Potter book because I think it's stupid that J.K. is simply killing off a bunch of characters. Like I tell my Creative Writing students, blowing everything up (or killing everyone off) is NOT resolution. What did the owl ever do to you J.K Rowling?!

so annoyed with Rowling's crappy 7th book that I even refused to watch the 6th movie.

really enjoying my classes. My students are pretty fantastic so far. Definitely some great material for the ol' blog.

About Hav

I'm an English teacher at a public high school, a gig that I've been doing for around 7! years now. I currently also teach our school's Leadership class. I'm an avid writer, but I don't seem to have enough time to read "for fun" books, as I like to call them. The grading seems to get in the way of such joyous endeavors. I also coach our school’s Knowledge Bowl team if any of you are doubting my extreme nerdiness. Also, if any of you are curious, the Hav part of my name rhymes with mob (as in the angry, torch carrying kind), or like you’re laughing, Ha Ha Havig.